Zelenskyy meets with Mejlis representatives on Day of Remembrance of Crimean Tatar Genocide Victims
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with members of the Mejlis, the representative body of the Crimean Tatar people on May 18, the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People.
Zelenskyy recalled that 79 years ago, hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars were deprived of their homes and subject to attempts to erase any trace of them in Crimea by the Stalinist regime.
“Everyone in Ukraine now recognizes this evil,” he wrote on Facebook.
“Years later, having changed its symbols but having the same essence, evil returned. To destroy people in the same way. But this time we will destroy it. We have to do it.”
Zelenskyy stressed “no matter what Russia does, its aggression will be defeated, and it will not succeed in stealing either Crimea or any other part of our country.”
“I am confident that the time will come when we will all be able to meet together on May 18 and be sure that our Crimea, its blooming gardens and hospitable homes, have a free life, warm memories of their grandparents, smiling children and no trace of occupation,” the president said.
“And so it will be.”
According to Zelenskyy, more and more countries now realize that “there will be no return of peace to international relations” without the return of Crimea.
He added that Ukraine continues to work for the liberation of Crimea and its reintegration.
On May 18, Zelenskyy signed a decree on establishing an advisory council for the liberation and reintegration of Crimea and Sevastopol.
He also offered Ukrainian MP Mustafa Dzhemilev, a former leader of the Mejlis, to jointly develop a memorial to the victims of the Crimean Tatar genocide.
On May 18, 1944, the Stalinist regime began the forced deportation of Crimean Tatars from the peninsula.
During the initial two days of the genocide (May 18-20, 1944), over 183,000 Crimean Tatars were forcibly evicted and deported from Crimea. Tragically, more than 46% of them, nearly every other person, perished either during the resettlement or within the first few years of exile until 1947. By that time, the total number of deported Crimean Tatars reached 238,000, with 110,000 fatalities.
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